Legendary Wars in Review â€“ A legend remains victorious in spite of history

Casual games rule the App Store and it sure didn’t take long for them to invade one of the most popular genres for hardcore gamers – Strategy Games. This subgenre blending aspects of strategy and action first originated in the explosion of various office time-killers (aka Flash games) and finally found its way onto the iOS. And whatâ€™s more, it was given quite a warm welcome by the iPhone community, with some of the titles finding their way into the top of the charts. The latest such entry to emerge from the crowd is Legendary Wars, uniting all the best aspects of the many predecessors and bringing some new features of its own.

Legendary Wars is a typical Action Strategy on the surface, but will offer some surprises once you dive in deeper. On a day like any other, a young rookie knight is attacked by a bunch of undead. And with this starts his epic tale that will eventually pit him and his newfound friends and comrades against an ancient evil. Only with the help the legendary Phoenix, resurrected from the 4 Sunstones thought lost long ago, can they prevail and save their land.

For an Action/Strategy game Legendary Wars offers a surprising variety of gameplay. The basics are mostly the same â€“ you have a castle and produce an army to crush the opponent. But even these traditional levels come in several varieties â€“ you may have the goal of destroying the enemy castle, killing a specific boss or simply surviving for a certain amount of time. The cash you spend on new units comes from your own miners, coming up from the depths every once in a while with resources you have to tap on to add to your treasury.

Your fighting force is a mishmash of different mythic creatures â€“ from elfies to golems, and dwarfies to unicorns. The original names give the units even more charm, though to be fair they do look like they mean business, especially after you upgrade them to tier 2. Speaking of which, cash earned for successful completion of levels can be spent on upgrading various aspects of your units, and once you max them out you can use Moonstones (gained for beating bosses or via IAP) to get them to a whole new level. And if youâ€™re bored of the process of building up your forces, youâ€™ll enjoy the fully action oriented levels, where you get to control a hero in the battlefield in typical side-scrolling fashion.

Legendary Wars boasts some nice-looking visuals in addition to the deep and varied gameplay. With full support for the Retina display your forces, drawn in a quirky cartoony style, will appease all but the most touchy players. The controls are very intuitive, offering the ability to guide individual units or to command the whole army with a simple tap. I would advise to toggle the casual control mode though, as navigating individual lanes is often a pain, with the game often not registering the swipe up/down gesture that controls it.

Whether youâ€™re a fan of the genre or are just looking for an interesting game to try it out, Legendary Wars certainly is a title worthy of attention. With a boatload of features, both borrowed from other successful titles and dreamed up anew, it is definitely the current crowning jewel of the Action/Strategy subgenre on the App Store and a worthy addition to anyoneâ€™s app collection.

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A project manager in a major telecommunications supplier, an iPhone junkie and lately - a TMA editor. Love long walks on the beach and my wife, who is the most beautiful girl on the face of this planet.
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